The Cost of Our Redemption

Exodus 38 rounds off the construction of the tabernacle by giving us the details of Bezalel's construction of the altar, bronze basin and the Courtyard and then the cost of the materials.

Two things are important to note about the features of the tabernacle.
1. There was only one door.
Exodus 38:18–19 (NLT) He made the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard of finely woven linen, and he decorated it with beautiful embroidery in blue, purple, and scarlet thread. It was 30 feet long, and its height was 7½ feet, just like the curtains of the courtyard walls. 19 It was supported by four posts, each set securely in its own bronze base. The tops of the posts were overlaid with silver, and the hooks and rings were also made of silver.

This tent was only entered through one entry. It is pointing to the reality that or salvation happens in ONE name through ONE person. Jesus Christ is our entrance into the presence of God. For nomadic people in the hot desert sun, convenience would necessitate a multitude of entrances. But Israel will learn early that God's way in singular. We must come HIS way, not according to our own imaginations. Thankfully, His was is beautiful and wonderful in Jesus. This is why Jesus calls Himself the door. Before Jesus is the way, He is the door. We enter only by Him and then we move forward. We are taught the ways of God, receive the truth of God and have our LIFE in God.

The second important element of Exodus 38:
2. The cost of the Tabernacle in total.
Remember, this was a tent! It was portable. It was supposed to be packed up and moved whenever Israel moved. AND it stayed like this until the time of Solomon, hundreds of years later. How much money would you put in a tent? God put a lot!
Exodus 38:24–26 (ESV) All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. 25 The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary: 26 a beka a head (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.

I think about future generations reading this report. They may have passed by the tabernacle tent as young boys and girls. Perhaps they even played sports around it and even tried to explore it, probably not getting far as mischievous boys and girls still try to do in the off limit church spaces today! But then one day they were taught Torah and would hear the cost of that tent. Their mouths would have dropped.

The weight in gold is about 30 talents. A talent is 75 pounds. That makes today's gold valuation $44.2 million. That's just the gold.

The silver was 1,775 shekels. That comes to about $3.4 million in silver.

Add in the copper and the total cost in today's valuation of this tabernacle was about $50 million!

Wow. Imagine making a tent for $50 million. 

What is this telling us? The high cost of our redemption! Israel's tabernacle whereby it was able to have fellowship with the God of the Universe was of substantial cost to the people. 

But our redemption - in Christ - was of enormous cost to the Father. 

1 Peter 1:18–19 (NLT) For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.